Hungarian Gas Company MOL to Build New Skyscraper in Budapest

Hungarian oil and natural gas multinational MOL is planning to construct a new headquarters at the Kopaszi Dam in Budapest, according to Zsolt Hernádi, the company’s chairman and CEO.

The new headquarters will take the form of a skyscraper, which will be 120 meters-high, as well as an attached ‘podium’ building, which will have a height of 30 meters.

According to current plans, the 28-storey building will have enough space for 2500 workers upon its official opening in 2021. While only MOL employees will work in the building, the skyscraper will also have a rooftop observation deck that will be open to the public.

The 83,000-square meter ‘MOL Campus’ will replace the company’s current 50-year-old headquarters, whose future is now uncertain.

While he was unwilling to discuss how much the building will cost, Hernádi did say that ground will officially be broken on construction for the MOL Campus next year.

The building is being designed by British architecture firm Foster + Partners, and by the Hungarian architects from FintaStudio. Foster + Partners have designed buildings such as Wembley Stadium and the ‘Gherkin’ tower in London, Apple Park, and Berlin’s new, world-famous Reichstag building, while Finta is responsible for such Budapest landmarks as the WestEnd City Center and the Bank Center.

In addition to being what MOL claims is the “office of the future”, the campus will also be applying for LEED and BReAM qualifications, certifications of the building’s energy-friendly nature.

Financial news outlet Portfolio reports that MOL purchased the lot upon which its new campus is to be built from the BudaPark project, meaning that it will be a completely separate undertaking entirely.

In addition, Portfolio discussed criticisms of the current plans, which range from those who believe that the new skyscraper is both ‘unnecessary” and a bad fit for Budapest’s cityscape, to those who think that it would make more sense for it to be significantly taller.

At 120 meters, the MOL Campus will be as tall as it can legally be without appealing for an exception to Hungary’s laws regarding the height of urban buildings.

You can view additional visualizations of the proposed building below: